Question Which part is failing on my motherboard?

[tarogmats]

I have a relatively older build.
Processor: Ryzen 1600.
Motherboard: ROG B350-f
RAM: HyperX RGB 16GB (8 x 2)
GPU: GTX 1060
And an older PSU.

The system ran generally fine, did what I needed it to do. No hiccups.

One day though, I was watching a YouTube video and the display said, "going into standby mode." But the system was still operating. I could still hear the video playing. My peripherals were still on. Just no display.
But it wouldn't "wake up" no matter how I fiddled with the mouse or the keyboard.

Instead I had to hold the power button to restart.

it came on. It ran, I thought all was well. Then it did the same thing a day after. But after resetting the system, this time it went straight back into "power saving" mode as soon as I logged into windows. But still with awake peripherals. Just a dead monitor.


Now it gets sort of weird to me. Because I've had dead parts or boards before. But I usually had an idea what it was.

So I figured try the RAM. I didn't think the GPU was dead, so I started swapping the ports the RAM was in and trying to boot up.
The system would then power on, the fans would spin at max, and the keyboard and mouse would come on and die. And one of them would usually come back on while the other remained dead.
Still no display from the monitor.

However with my RAM, the RGB still worked.
So I fiddled and fiddled some more. Changing slots. Dusting the ports. And eventually the system booted with one RAM stick in.
It ran I accepted it. But eventually I tried to see if I could see if both sticks would work.
So I stuck in the second stick, the system booted the RGB on both sticks was on.
I thought it was good.

It wasn't.

After being in the system I was unzipping something. And I realized it slowed a bit too much, turns out only one stick was registering.
So I thought ok, pulled the stick that I'd put back in, and the system went back to doing the max fan spinning. Peripherals dying. No display.
I kept swapping around what I assumed was the good "stick" and on the fourth try, by putting it back in the port it was originally in.
It booted, it's been running for a few days since then. But I've been hesitant to shut it down or restart for any reason.

But, that option was taken out of my hands last night. I was watching a video, downloading something and unzipping a file. The entire system locked up.
But the display was still frozen on the screen.
So it wasn't dead this time.

I did a hard reset, and it came back on and worked.

I've noticed a few hiccups in the day to day use of the system. Things seem extremely laggy.
Even notepad plus sometimes.
Sometimes I'd have to close and reopen a program especially if I just left it open for a few hours. To get rid of the sluggishness.
So I'm leaning towards the issue being RAM.

Mainly because it'd be the cheaper option to replace right now.
I bought a new board and I'm waiting on delivery.
So I'll hopefully rule that out.

Just hoping for some input, because I'm aware that it could be the CPU as well.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[Nemesia]

Sounds like a dying drive to me. Did you test your drive(s)?

"Unzipping a file. Getting slower. Locked up".

 

[tarogmats]

Sounds like a dying drive to me. Did you test your drive(s)?

"Unzipping a file. Getting slower. Locked up".

I mean I'll check, but preliminary checks show that the drives are "ok" though I guess that's not 100%. I'll be more extensive later. But taken that bit, without considering the other symptoms, it'd mean then it's probably two parts failing. Cause a failing drive, wouldn't cause those kinds of boot issues would it?

 

[Nemesia]

I mean I'll check, but preliminary checks show that the drives are "ok" though I guess that's not 100%. I'll be more extensive later. But taken that bit, without considering the other symptoms, it'd mean then it's probably two parts failing. Cause a failing drive, wouldn't cause those kinds of boot issues would it?

Any hardware failure or system instability can cause this. You will have to play the elimination game with your hardware. I'm saying drive because it seems like it's locking up when you're using it. The RAM is easy to test. You leave only 1 stick of RAM seated and you try using your computer like you normally do. You test both stick alone. If you have no problem using only one of the stick you try with the other one. If one of them give you issues it's probably a faulty stick or a faulty ram slot. Gonna have to test the slots too.

Could be your old PSU too. What is that PSU?

 

[tarogmats]

Any hardware failure or system instability can cause this. You will have to play the elimination game with your hardware. I'm saying drive because it seems like it's locking up when you're using it. The RAM is easy to test. You leave only 1 stick of RAM seated and you try using your computer like you normally do. You test both stick alone. If you have no problem using only one of the stick you try with the other one. If one of them give you issues it's probably a faulty stick or a faulty ram slot. Gonna have to test the slots too.

Could be your old PSU too. What is that PSU?

I actually don't even remember what PSU it is. I didn't buy it, a friend gave it to me a while back and he had it for a few years before giving it to me.

With the current RAM stick in though, it works and functions. Just MINOR hiccups, like right now there's a barely perceptible lag when typing. It's barely noticeable as I'm typing this.
Tbh, a lot of the lag comes when just browsing in firefox. And if I've left firefox opened for an extended period of time, it starts to slow down quite a bit. same with iTunes and anything else really.

So do I do a chkdsk cause I have four drives right now.
one SSD (os drive)
and three western digital terabytes. Two are the western digital blue, one is just a regular drive.

 

[stonecarver]

Next time you have to do a hard restart. Power down.

If you can FOR TESTING unplug the three other hard drives.

See if you re-boot okay and see if system is more stable.

Go into your Firefox and turn off hardware acceleration and all it's back ground services.

Chrome and Firefox are PIG's when it comes to memory.

16gb are good but remember the more pages open IT still will eat it all.


Is your OS hard drive Full? if you're full and run out of system memory your page file takes over and if hard drive is full than you hit a wall. Like your issue.

 

[tarogmats]

Next time you have to do a hard restart. Power down.

If you can FOR TESTING unplug the three other hard drives.

See if you re-boot okay and see if system is more stable.

Go into your Firefox and turn off hardware acceleration and all it's back ground services.

Chrome and Firefox are PIG's when it comes to memory.

16gb are good but remember the more pages open IT still will eat it all.


Is your OS hard drive Full? if you're full and run out of system memory your page file takes over and if hard drive is full than you hit a wall. Like your issue.

Honestly I'm wary about shutting down. I should have the new board by this weekend hopefully.
I knew chrome was a hog didn't know Firefox was as well. Thanks for the tip.

I unplugged the drives though. (hot swap) the system is still laggy at points. It's not like it's lagging to the point of being unusable. It's just not as smooth as it should've been.